Education is Everything

Tag Archives: Ranking of Green countries

This 4th edition of the GGEI is an in-depth look at how 60 countries perform in the global green economy, as well as how expert practitioners rank this performance and ranks based on perception.

Performance Rank

SCORE

1

Sweden

68.1

2

Norway

65.9

3

Costa Rica

64.2

4

Germany

63.6

5

Denmark

63.2

6

Switzerland

63.1

7

Austria

63

8

Finland

62.9

9

Iceland

62.6

10

Spain

59.2

11

Ireland

59

12

New Zealand

58.8

13

France

56.4

14

Colombia

56.1

15

Portugal

55.8

16

Peru

55.8

17

Kenya

55.4

18

Brazil

55.3

19

Chile

55.1

20

United Kingdom

54.6

21

Netherlands

54.2

22

Uruguay

54.1

23

Mauritius

51.5

24

Zambia

51.3

25

Italy

51.2

26

Ethiopia

50.6

27

Rwanda

50.4

28

United States

50.1

29

Canada

49.6

30

Taiwan

47.5

31

Mexico

47.4

32

Philippines

47.2

33

Israel

47

34

South Africa

46.8

35

Malaysia

46.4

36

Tanzania

46.2

37

Australia

46.1

38

Czech Republic

46

39

South Korea

45.6

40

United Arab Emirates

45.6

41

Burkina Faso

45.2

42

Cambodia

44.9

43

Turkey

44.8

44

Japan

44.6

45

Thailand

44.5

46

Ghana

44.5

47

Belgium

44.1

48

Argentina

43.8

49

India

43.4

50

Slovakia

43

51

Panama

41.5

52

Morocco

41.5

53

Mozambique

41

54

Indonesia

40.3

55

China

40.1

56

Poland

37.1

57

Senegal

33.4

58

Qatar

33.3

59

Vietnam

32.2

60

Mongolia

29.5

The perception survey for the 2014 GGEI was conducted from June through August 2014, and polled targeted respondents on how they assessed national green performance on the four main dimensions of Leadership & Climate Change, Efficiency Sectors, Markets & Investment, and Environment & Natural Capital.

Perception Rank

SCORE

1

Germany

93.6

2

Denmark

92.8

3

Sweden

90.2

4

Norway

84.8

5

Netherlands

84

6

United States

76.2

7

Japan

72.4

8

United Kingdom

71.6

9

Finland

70.2

10

Switzerland

67.8

11

Australia

66.3

12

Canada

63

13

China

61.6

14

Costa Rica

60.4

15

Brazil

59.7

16

India

56.1

17

Austria

55.1

18

New Zealand

52

19

Iceland

49.1

20

France

48.5

21

Spain

46.7

22

South Africa

45.8

23

South Korea

44.1

24

Israel

41.1

25

United Arab Emirates

40.3

26

Kenya

40

27

Malaysia

39.3

28

Mexico

37.1

29

Italy

36.1

30

Belgium

36

31

Indonesia

35.3

32

Peru

35

33

Ireland

34.3

34

Mauritius

34

35

Chile

33.5

36

Tanzania

33.3

37

Ethiopia

33.1

38

Philippines

33

39

Morocco

32.6

40

Portugal

32.5

41

Colombia

31.6

42

Poland

31.5

43

Qatar

31.2

44

Turkey

31.2

45

Vietnam

31.1

46

Taiwan

30.7

47

Argentina

30.2

48

Rwanda

30.1

49

Zambia

30

50

Mozambique

29.8

51

Thailand

29.3

52

Czech Republic

29.2

53

Cambodia

28.9

54

Ghana

28.7

55

Burkina Faso

28.5

56

Slovakia

28.2

57

Mongolia

27.7

58

Uruguay

27.6

59

Panama

27.4

60

Senegal

27.3

Germany (perception) and Sweden (performance) top the 2014 GGEI, confirming a trend observed in prior editions of strong results by Germany and the Nordic states. Besides performing well on both the economic and environmental areas of the GGEI, these nations display consistent green leadership and receive global recognition for it.

Covered for the first time in this edition, Costa Rica performs extremely well, ranking third on the GGEI performance measure behind Sweden and Norway and receiving strong recognition on the perception survey, an impressive result for such a small country.

Like in 2012, Copenhagen is the top green city as ranked by our survey of global experts, reinforcing the continued strength of the Danish green brand. Tracked for the first time this year, Vancouver and Singapore also rank in the top 10 of green cities.

Many of the fastest growing economies in the world rank poorly on the GGEI performance measure, highlighting an urgent need to reorient their economies to greener

There are concerning results related to more developed countries as well – notably Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States – where perceptions of their green economic performance dramatically exceed their actual performance on the GGEI. These countries appear to receive more credit than they deserve, an information gap that requires further exploration.

Despite its leadership founding the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), South Korea continues not to register as a green country brand on our survey and performs poorly, ranked 39th out of 60 on this year’s GGEI. Despite better perception results, Japan also performs poorly on the 2014 GGEI, ranked 44th out of 60.

While the United Kingdom performs adequately in most areas of the GGEI, it doesn’t excel on any one topic, possibly due to inconsistent political rhetoric and policy related to green economy there. While gradually improving in each successive GGEI edition, the UK still lags behind its northern European and Nordic competitors.

The GGEI results reveal a similar observation for a variety of non-European states – including Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda in Africa and Colombia, Chile and Peru in Latin America – again suggesting a need for these states to better position their green economies on the international stage.

The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically benchmarking the environmental performance of a state’s policies.

As of January 2012 four EPI reports have been released – the Pilot 2006 Environmental Performance Index, and the 2008, 2010, and 2012 Environmental Performance Index. For the 2012 report, a new “Pilot Trend EPI” was developed to rank countries based on the environmental performance changes occurred during the last decade, allowing to establish which countries are improving and which are declining.

In the 2012 EPI ranking, the top five countries were Switzerland, Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica. The bottom five countries were South Africa, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iraq. The United Kingdom was ranked in 9th place, Japan 23rd place, Brazil 30th, the United States 49th, China 116th, and India came in 125th.